Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Surf Girls Hawaii’ on Prime Video, A Docuseries Profiling Young Surfers Of Hawaiian Heritage As They Reach For Professional Glory 

Surf Girls Hawaii (Prime Video) is a four-part docuseries exec produced by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine and featuring five native Hawaiian surfers who are set to make waves in the sport’s highest professional levels – Moana Jones Wong, Pua DeSoto, Ewe Wong, Maluhia Kinimaka, and Brianna Cope. These young women have grown up surfing with and against each other in the legendary waves off Oahu. But the opportunity to compete in the World Surf League brings new challenges to their craft plus added stress in their personal lives.   

SURF GIRLS HAWAII: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: Pipeline, the ultimate surf break, crashes in on itself as the tube coveted by surfers in these parts collapses. It’s an epic wave this local knows all about. “My name is Moanalani, I’m 23 years old, and I’m from the North Shore of Oahu.”

The Gist: From the people she grew up surfing with to her peers in competition, everyone agrees that Moana Jones Wong is one of the best female surfers in the world. “Moana’s the gnarliest 100-pound human I know,” says Maluhia Kinimaka, 23. And 17-year-old Pua DeSoto’s praise is even more direct: “badass.” In 2022, after receiving entry to the Billabong Pro Pipeline as a wild card – that’s a slot given to a surfer not on the Championship Tour, but who is recognized as the best to surf a particular event – Wong rode the WC all the way to victory and an elevated profile in the world of professional surfing. Now, as Surf Girls Hawaii joins the action one week out from the Sunset Pro Junior Qualifying surf series, Wong wants to prove she’s not just a pipeline specialist, but a respected all-around surfer.   

Wong, Kinimaka, DeSoto, and another talented young surfer, 17-year-old Ewelei’ula Wong, join surf trainer/mentor Ha’a Keaulana for a bout of “rock running” on the sandy ocean floor, which builds lung capacity and mental stamina as they prepare for Sunset. “They are the next generation of native Hawaiian surfing,” Keaulana says of the group. “And they’re making me really proud, and everyone who came before me really proud.” And while a World Surf League-sanctioned event brings with it professional competitors, Moana says her biggest challenge will be going up against these young women, who she grew up surfing against. 

For all of these locals, surfing is in their blood. But it can be a DNA thing, too. Maluhia’s dad is big wave surfing legend Titus Kinimaka, who says she was raised a “water person,” and Pua’s dad Duane DeSoto is a former longboard champion. We quickly learn how important family is to all of the young women profiled in Surf Girls Hawaii, who each have their cheering sections on the beach as the heats for Sunset Pro start to pop off. Only the top five qualifiers will make it to the next round, so the pressure’s on. But competitive surfing is full of all kinds of stress. Two of these young women have already dealt with major knee injuries early in their careers, and the financial realities of professional surfing are such that making the grade without a major sponsorship is next to impossible. (To that end, Ewe Wong is “very stoked” to be signing a new contract with Billabong.) And Maluhia Kinimaka, a student at Stanford, has an even bigger goal. “I would like to be the first elite level competitive surfer who is also a native Hawaiian woman with a PhD.” 

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Max also features two seasons of the Emmy-winning documentary series 100 Foot Wave, about Garrett McNamara and his fellow big wave surfers as they hit monstrous swells in places like Nazare, Portugal and navigate professional stresses of their own. And though ABC canceled it after one season, the Kelly Slater-hosted competitive reality show Ultimate Surfer offered an interesting look at the different personalities and skill sets of surfers on the cusp of World Surf League competition.   

Our Take: There would be inspiration enough here, if Surf Girls Hawaii was only profiling a group of young athletes reaching for the next level of professional competition. But incorporate all of that into these young women’s identities as lifelong members of a community of surfing, and the connection they feel to the sport as native Hawaiians – “Surfing is a cultural practice,” says Pua DeSoto – and this docuseries has a powerful core narrative that should more than sustain it moving forward. These individuals all know each other. They were raised together as people of the water, attending regular school and surf school alongside one another. An interesting angle on Surf Girls Hawaii then becomes how those relationships evolve once the added pressures of professional competition and earning a paycheck are figured into the mix. Sure, they’re rock running together off the beaches of Oahu for now, and encouraging each other as people who share a heritage. But the leader board margins in pro surfing are really, really slim, the sport is very expensive to pursue, and often, as we see during the finals for the Sunset Pro event, the difference between moving on and being disqualified can come down to mere decimal points. Who will have the stamina to outlast her biggest competitors, and how will they all navigate the emerging layers of surfing at a professional level? And there’s an ultimate foe here that’s even bigger than anything on a personal level. It might all come down to a comment Ewe Wong’s coach makes before her qualifying round at Sunset. They’ll just have to see “what the ocean provides.” 

Sex and Skin: Nothing but the predominant everyday fashion of beach life in Hawaii, everything from Billabong and Town & Country surf T’s to bikini tops, rash guard shirts, oversized logo hoodies, and Wayfarer shades.  

Parting Shot: All of the competitors are excited to travel to Florida for the Super Girl Surf Pro, which will mark their last chance to qualify for the World Surf League’s Challenger Series. But with Hurricane Nicole brewing in the Atlantic, surfing conditions for the event are sure to be unpredictable. 

Sleeper Star: Surf Girls Hawaii immediately establishes a strong sense of place, and an awareness of how the sport’s evolution is directly connected to Hawaiian heritage. And for all of us landlubbers, there’s also a healthy bit of escapism here: surfing in Hawaii is full of the kind of natural grandeur and rush of athletic excitement that’s unique to the region and makes it eminently watchable. 

Most Pilot-y Line: “Surfing is, like, my therapy,” explains Ewe Wong, as she is seen on her board, gliding seemingly effortlessly through another Pipeline barrel. “That’s where I express myself. It’s also where I feel the most confident in myself, and can be the best version of myself.” 

Our Call: STREAM IT. Surf Girls Hawaii offers personal profiles and inspirational stories in equal measure as the docuseries follows the five young women at its center, each of them as proud of their Hawaiian heritage as they are of their prowess in the Pipeline, out there on a surfboard. 

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges